Prognostic and Predictive Factors in Breast Carcinoma

Abstract

Regarding breast cancer, there are well-known clinical, pathological, and molecular prognostic and predictive factors documented by several studies especially within the last decades. From a pathological point of view, these factors need to be evaluated while examining a breast carcinoma, and it is the pathologist’s important role to perform this in each case and to include this information in the final pathology report. Based on these factors, patients with breast cancer are divided into those with good prognosis and those with bad prognosis. Also, based on these factors, management is established in every case and the response to the treatment is estimated. Since the evaluation of these parameters is so important in breast pathology, it is necessary for the pathologist dealing with breast carcinoma cases to have experience in this field. Also, especially regarding the evaluation of the markers performed to classify a tumor from a molecular point of view, every laboratory performing these tests is responsible for providing accurate and reproducible results.

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